One of these volunteers is Daniel De Poli, who has spent the last 30 years fighting against ‘anglicismes’, firing off thousands of emails to French organisations which have allowed in stray words of English.

A Frenchman with Italian ancestry, the 55-year-old civil servant at the Ministry of Transport began fighting for the French language after becoming disillusioned with the gradual intrusion of the English language in Italian.

“I speak Italian as well and I saw what was happening in that language. I do not want the same thing to happen in French.

“Anglicismes are a danger for the French language. Many other countries do not have the infrastructure to fight against this threat, but in France we have the means to protect the French language,” De Poli said. 

“I fight against the intrusion of the English language, but not against the English themselves or the English language,” De Poli explained.

For the last 30 years, he has spent at least one to two hours daily sending ‘courriels’ (emails) to French journalists and news publications who have unwittingly employed an English term in lieu of a French one.

As of 2016, De Poli had sent over 11,000 emails. The French daily Le Figaro even dubbed De Poli ‘the anglicism hunter and benevolent terror of the French press’.

De Poli explained his daily routine: “I start by going to a search engine and typing something like ‘blockchain’ (a common anglicism). This lets me immediately find French articles that use English words (…) I also find them simply by reading the press every day.

“Once I find an anglicism, I send an email to the journalist to inform them and offer a French equivalent – like when I found an article using the English word ‘leader’ instead of the French term dirigeant.”

De Poli does not take issue with all English terms in French. In his view, there is a difference between those of cultural versus practical significance.

“Take the word ‘whisky’. It has a cultural significance to Anglo-Saxons, so I don’t bother getting people to translate that (…) It’s like how we use spaghetti and pizza – both are Italian words that have a cultural significance. We do not need to translate those, but we can translate ‘blockchain'”, he said.

De Poli said he seeks out the use of “every-day English terms’ – like a stray ‘manager’ instead of chef – as well as emerging terms in technology,” a field where De Poli has noticed an increase in reliance on English terms instead of French equivalents.

A member of the new collective Osez le Français (Dare to use French) – which groups together several associations fighting to protect the French language – De Poli also volunteers his time helping with legal campaigns to stop governmental organisations, private universities, brands and companies from using breaking the rules of the Loi Toubon.

READ MORE: ‘Right to French’ : When is it illegal to use English in France?

The Loi Toubon, passed in 1994, is an effort to keep the French language a “fundamental element of the personality and heritage of France.”

The law regulates and requires the use of French in education, work, trade, and public services. It is mostly known for its attempts to crackdown on the use of “franglais” in the public space, but covers use of all languages and aims to preserve French and give each French person the ‘right to be informed’ in French.

Most recently, Osez le Français has focused its efforts on the titles of degree programmes at French universities and institutions of higher learning, which they argue break the Loi Toubon. For example, the ‘Saint-Étienne School of Economics’ and the ‘Graduate School of Management – IAE de Grenoble’. 

De Poli summarised his primary reasons for fighting against anglicisms as a need to ‘appreciate the French language’.

READ MORE: Franglais: Why do French adverts love to use English words?

A firm believer in the importance of teaching and learning new languages, De Poli also worries that the use of English in French would detract from foreigners’ interest in learning French.

“If you take an anglophone who wants to learn French and they find that the language is full of English words like ‘computer’, ‘software’, or ‘big data’, they will say ‘French isn’t worth it'”, he argued.

“Learning a language is about discovering new things and enriching yourself.”

The civil servant is also concerned about members of the French population who do not speak English and find themselves lost when anglicisms are used. 

“More and more people are complaining to the (CSA) that there is too much English being used for titles on the television and the radio, even though there is a French language requirement,” he said, citing a segment on the Europe 1 radio channel.

As for the future, De Poli said that he is looking toward legal action as the answer. “Brands and private companies have to learn that there will be condemnation if they do not respect the law about using French”. 

In 2021, De Poli and his compatriots saw this strategy work – an airport in eastern France had named itself the ‘Lorraine airport’. A sister organisation, L’association Francophonie Avenir, fought for five years to get name changed, eventually winning.

Those flying through eastern France now pass through the ‘Lorraine Aéroport’.

Most hated anglicisms

We asked De Poli to give us some examples of some common anglicisms that are found in French:

Punchline (La chute de la blague)

Leader (Chef or Responsable)

Business school (École de commerce)

Blockchain (Une chaîne de blocs)

Data (Données)

E-mail (Courriel)